Tuomioja questions benefits of NATO membership

Former Foreign Minister and ruling Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (Social Democratic Party of Finland-SDP) lawmaker Erkki Tuomioja said he doubted that Finland´s possible North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership would strengthen its security.

He also viewed that Finland should have the opportunity to apply for NATO membership, but now is not the time to do so.

Commenting on his new book "Finland and NATO" on Monday, Tuomioja raised the question of what in practice would NATO countries be willing to do to help Finland in the event of a war, reported Xinhua.

If Finland were a NATO member, it would become the primary front in a war between NATO and Russia, he said.

"I believe NATO would ultimately emerge as the winner and would show up as the liberator of Finland, but what would remain of us by that time, especially if nuclear weapons are used?" Tuomioja asked.

According to him, it is not in the interest of either Finland or Russia to turn the 1,300-km border between them into a military conflict zone.

According to national broadcaster Yle's report on Monday, a recent poll found that 45 percent of those surveyed would support Finland's application for NATO membership on condition that it is recommended by the nation's leaders.

Roughly one-third of the respondents opposed the idea and under one quarter were undecided.

Last December, Prime Minister Sanna Marin and her Swedish counterpart Magdalena Andersson said they had no plans to apply for NATO membership.